Setting up a continuous learning program
      Step Ten  
       
 
        Continuous learning

        The Process of Ongoing Improvement
       
       

       Continuous learning
       

      Organizations are open systems. This means they are continuously interacting with the surrounding environment, and this exposes them to change.

      To deal with this constant change, an organization has to be able to consistently generate and up-date the knowledge needed to manage the system. This is the only way an organization can achieve its goal of improvement. This ability can be fostered by the continuous learning cycle that Deming called PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act).


       

      We can underpin this cycle with a tool from the Theory of Constraints. The Future Reality Tree allows  us to plan out the actions for continuous improvement, transforming the undesirable effects we experience into desirable ones. It also allows us to check that our actions are effective, and that new, undesirable effects don’t crop up.
      The Future Reality Tree allows us to identify the changes necessary to bring about improvement through the interaction of two fundamental logical elements: Necessity and Sufficiency.

      The systemic nature of the Future Reality Tree can  be seen by the fact that it contains a feedback mechanism (the equivalent of the ACT step in Deming’s cycle). This mechanism consists of the combination of the Future Reality Tree with the Negative Branch Reservation. This mechanism should prevent the occurrence of unwanted effects in our process of continuous improvement.
       

      The Process of Ongoing Improvement

      We have to remember that knowledge increases continuously. We can visually represent how we know, learn and undertake the actions necessary for improvement in the form of the ‘knowledge tree’.

      A continuous learning program not only provides management with all it needs for improving the system’s performance, but it guarantees the future of the organization. This, in turn, fuels the energy and confidence needed to undertake new actions.

      We can be sure of achieving continuous improvement because we know the direction we have to go in: the goal of the system we established at the beginning of our journey.
       

       

 
 
 
                
       
                                                          step nine